After a short break, Ethan and Bernadette decided to resume their journey. Grateful that there were no other strong monsters along the way, they reached Renaria before lunchtime.
"So this is the city of magic?" Bernadette asked, looking around, amazed by everyone's ability to use magic in their daily activities and errands.
"You're a priestess, you haven't been here before?" Ethan asked.
"Nope. I didn't have time for this. I was always busy at the church. Thanks for bringing me here, master." Bernadette stopped walking when her stomach rumbled.
"Alright. Just stay close to me. Let's find a place where we can eat," Ethan said.
"But we don't have money."
"Don't worry about that. I still have some money left," Ethan replied with a smile.
While walking down the bustling street, Ethan noticed a slave trader standing on the side with large cages. He seemed to be waiting for customers. Interested, Ethan approached him and took a look at the slaves being sold.
"Hey, mister," the slave trader called. "Are you interested in buying a slave?" he asked.
Looking at the caged slaves, one of them caught Ethan's attention. She looked young and pretty. She had curly lava red hair and a slim body. She looked thinner than the average girl of her age, probably due to how they treated her.
"You have good eyes, Mister. She's a fire magician," the slave trader said. "Please take a closer look."
Ethan moved closer and saw that pleading in the girl's eyes. She must have gone through a lot with these slave traders. He knew nothing about her upbringing and became more interested.
"How much is she?" Ethan asked.
"6599 gold coins," the slave trader replied.
Ethan almost puked out his intestine when hearing the price. That was a brutal price. He could buy a luxury house with that money and live a decent life for a year or two. He didn't even have a hundred gold coins with him, excluding the money he hadn't withdrawn from the system.
"I can give you a week to earn that money. I'll give you a discount so you can get her for 6000 gold coins," the slave trader said, seeing the grimace on Ethan's face. "You can always find me here. Deal?"
Ethan thought about it for a second. Then he finally agreed. "Deal." He needed to get 6000 gold coins within a week, or he'd lose her forever. He could only think of one place where he could earn that money in a short time. The adventurers' guild.
"Master, I'm starving," Bernadette said.
"Right. I'm sorry for making you wait," Ethan replied. He led Bernadette to the eatery across the street, looked for an empty table, took a seat and ordered some food.
After lunch, they looked for a place where they could temporarily live. After finding an inn and talking to the homeowner, Ethan and Bernadette went to the Adventurer's Guild.
Ethan was actually already registered as an E-rank adventurer, but wanting to start over, he registered again. This time he used the name Shadow. The appraisers evaluated his magic power, and because he didn't give much attention to his intelligence, Ethan received a C-rank card.
"Why C-rank only?" Bernadette asked in a mad tone, complaining to the appraisers. "Don't you know how strong my master is? He defeated the—" Her words became incomprehensible as Ethan covered her mouth. To make her stop making a scene, he dragged her outside.
"Why didn't you complain, Master?" Bernadette asked. "Those people underestimated you. You are too strong for a C-rank."
"Please don't cause trouble, Bernadette. They measure magic power, not strength or agility. It's just right to give me a C-rank card. You're a B-rank adventurer, right? I'm going to need your help," Ethan said.
Bernadette couldn't do anything but follow Ethan. They went back inside, looked at the board where quests were being displayed. Ethan took as many quests as possible, from C to B-rank. Other adventurers were confused by what he was doing, but Ethan ignored them. He needed to earn as much money as possible.
Ethan and Bernadette decided to take a quest which they could finish quickly before nightfall. They agreed on gathering herbs in the plains nearby. So, they left the guild and headed there. It was a wide area of flat land, blanketed with grass and different plants, looks peaceful at first sight. But then they spotted slimes ahead of them, not just ordinary slimes, as they grow bigger and evolve based on what they eat. Some of them were already so big and looked troubling. Their colors also changed. Looking at them, Ethan remembered the queen of Hares.
"This must be the reason why only a few adventurers take this quest. Because of these annoying slimes," Ethan guessed. "We should wipe them out and level up."
"Um!" Bernadette responded.
And so, they began wiping out the slimes until Ethan had to face the biggest of them. Its name was written in orange, which means it was of the same level as him. Smaller slimes weren't that bad, but he couldn't ignore this one. He equipped his new sword and attacked it. Surprisingly, it didn't attack back. 
But the sword alone couldn't defeat the slime. It kept regenerating. Its core was very deep. Ethan stopped attacking for a while and tried to think of other ways to defeat the massive monster.